Aircraft Landing Guidance Using ATIS Confirmation Feedback
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft landing systems rely on unverified ATIS messages for determining contingency trajectories, which are prone to errors due to the lack of integrity in voice-based information, posing a safety risk when a pilot is incapacitated.
Innovation Solution
An automatic guidance system on board the aircraft receives and decodes ATIS messages, requests confirmation from air traffic control, and determines a contingency trajectory based on validated information, ensuring the integrity of the data through syntactic analysis and air traffic control verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the aircraft uses voice-based ATIS messages to determine contingency trajectory, then the system can obtain landing runway information, but the integrity and reliability of the information cannot be guaranteed
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism by automatically requesting confirmation of decoded ATIS message content from air traffic control and validating the decoded content against the confirmation response. This closed-loop verification ensures information integrity and prevents erroneous trajectory determination due to voice message errors or decoding issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces air traffic control as an intermediary verification layer between the ATIS message source and the aircraft's trajectory determination system. The automated confirmation request to ATC serves as a mediator that validates the decoded information before it is used for critical flight decisions, thereby enhancing reliability.
2Reliability
If the aircraft automatically requests confirmation from air traffic control, then the reliability of information is improved, but the complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically generating and sending confirmation requests to air traffic control without requiring pilot intervention. The electronic circuitry autonomously decodes ATIS messages, formulates confirmation requests, receives responses, and validates information, reducing the need for complex manual verification procedures while maintaining high reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple functions into a single integrated automatic guidance system: ATIS message reception, voice recognition decoding, automated confirmation request generation, response decoding, and trajectory determination. This consolidation manages system complexity by combining verification and navigation functions into one cohesive electronic system rather than separate independent subsystems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for automatically guiding an aircraft includes receiving an ATIS message and decoding the content of the ATIS message. If the decoded content of the ATIS message includes a parameter relating to an active landing runway, the method includes creating a message requesting confirmation of the decoded content and commanding the sending of the message over a communication frequency with air traffic control, receiving a response from air traffic control and decoding the response to determine whether or not the response is a confirmation of the decoded content of the ATIS message. If the response is a confirmation of the decoded content of the ATIS message, the method includes determining a contingency trajectory of the aircraft at least partially in consideration of the decoded content of the ATIS message. The method also includes automatically guiding the aircraft along the determined contingency trajectory.